A group of 67 men incarcerated at the Sussex Correctional Institution have filed a federal class action suit, arguing Delaware officials should have taken more action to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the state's correctional facilities.

Had Gov. John Carney, Department of Corrections Commissioner Claire DeMatteis and Sussex Correctional Institution Warden Truman Mears taken earlier efforts to quarantine inmates and provide them with face masks, the deaths of 12 inmates and one in three people at the Georgetown facility testing positive for the virus might have been avoided, argue Dion D. Gibbs and the 66 other named plaintiffs, all of whom are representing themselves as of Thursday.

The class action suit requests $400 million in relief for what the complaint says constituted cruel and unusual punishment, violating the Eighth Amendment. Gibbs asserts Carney should have stepped in to put safeguards in place in Delaware's correctional facilities and that not having face masks, social distancing protocols or other preventive measures caused both physical and emotional harm to all those incarcerated throughout the pandemic.